The present invention relates to a semiconductor testing or inspecting apparatus and method, and particularly to screening of a non-volatile semiconductor memory.
In a conventional method of testing a semiconductor memory, a result of a pretest in a laser repair process for, when a defective memory cell exists in a memory array, substituting a spare memory array therefor by blowing a fuse provided within the semiconductor memory is stored in the semiconductor memory. In a wafer test corresponding to a subsequent process, the test result stored in the memory is read and unnecessary tests are omitted. There has been proposed such a configuration that as semiconductor memory test processes at this time, a contact test, a DC test (Direct Current Test) and an FC test (FunCtion test) are performed in order and thereby a decision as to whether the semiconductor memory is good or bad is made (refer to a patent document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 08(1996)-023016)).
In the process of testing the semiconductor memory such as described in the patent document 1, however, it is not always possible to accurately determine whether the semiconductor memory is good or bad.